Tina Brown Quits The New Yorker Tribune News Services Contributed To This Report.

July 09, 1998|By Stevenson Swanson, Tribune Staff Writer.

NEW YORK — Tina Brown, the British-born editor who has been lauded and condemned for the radical changes she made at one of America's most famous magazines, quit her post at the helm of The New Yorker on Wednesday to form a new media company with Miramax Films.

The high-profile Brown, whose continued tenure in one of the most coveted jobs in the magazine world had been the subject of speculation recently, will become chairman of the new enterprise, which will start a monthly magazine, produce films and television programs, and publish books.

Joining her in the as-yet unnamed venture is Ronald Galotti, publisher of Vogue magazine, who will serve as president. Both The New Yorker and Vogue are owned by Conde Nast Publications, a subsidiary of S.I. Newhouse's Advance Publications Inc.

Financing for the new company will come from Miramax, a Walt Disney Co. subsidiary that has produced or released independent movies such as "Good Will Hunting," "The English Patient," "Pulp Fiction," and "Scream."

"This partnership with Miramax is a unique creative and business opportunity--to own what we create and to expand our vision into other media," said Brown, 44, in a statement.

"(We) all agree that there is a substantial audience for thoughtful, high-quality movies, books and television programming that is now underserved."

In making the leap from running a well-established periodical to starting a speculative new company in the crowded media-and-entertainment field, Brown builds on an already sizable reputation for making risky and attention-grabbing moves.

When she became editor of The New Yorker in 1992, the magazine that longtime editors Harold Ross and William Shawn had shaped into one of America's premier publications was seen as increasingly hidebound and almost willfully out of touch with the times.

Brown, who had scored a previous success in reviving Vanity Fair, cut the length of articles, made the magazine more timely and hired a stable of smart, edgy writers. The New Yorker dealt rapidly and at length with front-page news such as the death of Princess Diana and the charges that President Clinton had a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

"She enlivened the magazine to an extraordinary degree so that it had another life," said staff writer David Remnick. "Her time here was like a comet that woke things up. But unless you were very naive, you always knew this day would come."

Brown also took chances in giving established writers unusual assignments. The Columbia University historian Simon Schama, for instance, became one of the magazine's art critics.

"I sort of rose to the temerity of the suggestion and had a wonderful time," said Schama. "We were challenged all the time to argue well and to be entertaining while we did it."

But the changes went too far, in the eyes of many critics. Obscenities that once were rigidly barred proliferated, and the subject matter sometimes careened toward the sensational, such as a recent story about a dominatrix, complete with a full-page photo of the woman wielding a whip.

Brown "added a lot of juice," said Mike Hoyt, a senior editor at the Columbia Journalism Review. "But I think something was lost in the process. There are not so many places you can get the unexpected, leisurely, well-told tale that's not topical--the sort of timeless tale. That tended to get squeezed out of the magazine to a large extent."

Others were blunter in their assessment.

"She took a great institution and ruined it," said Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jimmy Breslin.

The New Yorker has a circulation of about 800,000 copies. It has not turned a profit since Newhouse bought it in 1985, losing an estimated $10 million last year. But Newhouse said in a published interview last week that he had offered Brown a new five-year contract.

Recent Conde Nast moves to bring The New Yorker more firmly under the company's centralized control were disturbing to Brown, according to staffers.